Katie McManus, a business strategist five and a half years into her company, talks about how perfectionism keeps entrepreneurs from doing the work that matters. She hired a writing coach and hated being bad at it, so she posted her commitment across six platforms to force herself to show up imperfectly.
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Good evening. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist, Money mindset, coach. Welcome to my live. Going live way later than normal because I want to call myself out on something. And welcome to those of you who are joining. Hello. So here's the thing. We are so good. Hi. Welcome. We are so good as. As human beings at procrastinating our dreams. Okay? We can put off absolutely anything if we can be so talented to put off doing dishes, just put off doing laundry, things that we actually need from day to day life for daily life. We are so much more talented at putting off doing things that will actually move us closer to what we really want. Okay. I'm personally doing this right now. And where I'm getting stuck is perfectionism. And I know my people. Hello. Yes, Perfectionism. I know I have some perfectionists in here. In my world. I know you struggle with this, too. Okay? I'm working on things right now that I'm not good at. I'm not good at them. I hate admitting that I'm not good at something. Okay. I'm learning that I have this edge that I need to work on. I'm. I'm. And just so you have, you know, full transparency, what I'm working on, I'm working on my writing. I want to become a better writer, better copywriter for my business. Hired this incredible writing coach. It's ripping me to shreds in all the best ways. And it's painful. It's painful to acknowledge that you're not perfect at something. And I just wanted to come on and share that. This happens to those of us who are years into our business. I am five and a half years into this business. Okay? I do pretty well. I do pretty well in my business. I'm very happy with where I am, but it's not where I want to stay. I want to continue to grow. And the reason I'm sharing this is because if you're in this position yourself, if you're struggling to do something that is outside your comfort zone or do something that you're worried you're going to look dumb at, you know, it's really easy for me to say, well, just don't. It's. It's impossible. You're going to feel that. But you have to do it anyway. You have to do it anyway, and you have to find a way to hold yourself accountable. How do I hold myself accountable, you ask? Well, here I am. I'm outing myself for being a perfectionist procrastinator on. On multiple social media channels. Two Facebook accounts, my LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Hi, guys. You know, I would be on Tick Tock also because I'm not a thousand followers yet. Which, by the way, if you want to help me out, go and follow me. I'm Katie.KDHD. i know, very funny. On Tick Tock. I think I'm at like 520something right now. Could. I could use all the follows so I can go live there as well. Anyway, I wanted to do this short live, you know, not gonna ramble on about this too much, but whatever you're being a perfectionist at, I'm going to tell you advice as if. As if it's not the advice that I need to hear, but I'm telling it to you. If you're being a perfectionist is something. Stop it. There's no such thing as perfect. Perfect doesn't exist. Perfect is this illusion that we've come up with in our brains to help us put off doing things that are uncomfortable. Okay. Doing things you've never done before are going to be uncomfortable. Right? Riding a bike for the first time was really uncomfortable. Okay. There are a lot of other things that I could list that are very uncomfortable to do for the first time. I'm not going to go down that list. Late night. But we're not that late night. Anyway, with that, I've outed myself. I have done my duty to push myself along and to face my fears. Thank you for witnessing me. And if there's something that you're like, like holding off on doing, I'd love to hear about it. If there's something that you're procrastinating doing because you don't want to look dumb or you're afraid you're not going to do it perfectly, please tell me, let's commiserate together because this is. This is just the human experience. This isn't even, you know, unique to starting a business. This is just the human experience. There's so many ways that we freak ourselves out about stuff. You know, like small, brave moments feel really big and scary until we've done them a few dozen times, and then they're not so bad. And then new things become the scary things. You know, the things that are way outside your comfort zone right now, they become that small, scary thing that it just takes you to do one thing. Heather, welcome. Imperfect action over. Perfect in action. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Well, also, Heather. Heather is going to be helping me get some done. I'm very, very excited for us to start. And that reminds me I have to get you some stuff anyway. I'm gonna, I'm gonna save that for tomorrow. I'm not gonna add that on my proc. Like, you know. Okay, so here's what I do when I'm procrastinating is I come up with all the other things that I could do. I get a shit ton of stuff done when I'm procrastinating, but it's not the stuff I need to be getting done. And so, Heather, I'm purposely not sending you the things that I need to be sending you because I, I need to get other things done. And. Hi. Hello. With that, I'm gonna get to work, everyone. Oh, gosh. And I'm gonna get more spin drift because I've drunk like a whole like eight pack box. Gotta stay hydrated. And anyway, let me see. Yes, please keep it to tomorrow. I will, don't worry. I also had the. Made the mistake of getting a boba tea and I got the Thai iced tea, forgetting that Thai iced tea has a fuck ton of caffeine. And so. And hi, Greg, welcome. Oh, Greg's an amazing photographer in the Portland area, if anyone's looking for a photographer. He's incredible. I've done multiple shoots with him, but I'm probably going to be awake for hours and I usually go to bed around now. So if you see me online being weird, then I apologize in advance. Anyway, love you all. Thank you for joining and I'll let you know how my imperfect action does. And Heather and Greg, thank you for joining. Have a great night, everyone. And I'm Katie McManus, business strategist, Money mindset coach. See you all tomorrow. Bye.
